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NE Iowa | Currently have cows in 2 pastures each with their own bull and a few late calving cows and heifers at home in basically a dry-lot situation. One pasture is rented and the other is owned. I am losing the rented pasture next year. The owner wants the half of the pasture that can be planted put in corn and the half that can't will be seeded to walnut trees. This pasture is 17 miles from where the cows are wintered and I farm the crop ground so I'm not actually losing it but it is getting repurposed and I'm ok with it. I've rented probably 8-10 different pastures in the last 20 years and I give up on finding another. Rented pastures always have some major flaws like non-existent fences, no water, stream that takes out fence every week, or no loading facilities. Then when you find a good one for a change it gets sold or the owner buys his own cows. Faced with the issue of losing 1/3 of my pasture I was just planning on dry-lotting more cows and just add a few more acres of hay for next year. I have all my own hay equipment so running it over a few more acres is not a big deal. The pasture I own is fertilized and divided up so that the cattle get moved about once a week. This pasture is surrounded by tillable ground that I own so wondering if there may be a better option. Taking 200 bu/acre corn ground and planting to grass doesn't pencil out to well but what about annual forages like sudangrass or millet? After soybean harvest I plant some of the fields close to the pasture to winter rye. I then run the cows on the rye in April. About May 1st I get them off the rye and into the pasture and plant the rye stubble to corn. What if I let them run the rye longer until May 20th or so and then plant sudangrass or millet for grazing? Have no experience with annual forages so looking for feedback. The goal would be to increase stocking rate of the owned pasture. Let them run the rye until late May so pasture would be waist high by then. Then graze the pasture down through June. At that point would add the annual forage into the rotation. Seems like late July and August having enough grass is tough and that is when the annual forage would be the best I assume. So some things I'm looking for suggestions on:
- What annual forage is best for grazing: sudangrass, sorgo-sudangrass hybrid, one of the millets?
- What kind of forage yield can you expect for yield? Between the annual forage and rye would it be more tons per acre then alfalfa?
- In order to get them to eat the annual forage do you have to keep them away from any other forage (grass)?
If I could get all the cows together it would eliminate the need for an additional bull but maybe it is more hassle then it is worth. I enjoy rotating the cows in the pasture but don't want to do it once or twice a day. Once or twice a week is often enough. I realize corn silage gets you the most feed per acre but when you hire the chopping, hauling, and bagging done and buying the bag it makes for fairly expensive feed. I've had bagged silage before and with the full-time off-farm job it was a pain to deal with every day all winter. Just considering different options and open to any advice you guys have. Thanks. | |
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Losing pasture next year - advice on different options?
